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Heather Heyer's Parents Spoke Out About Her Death & It'll Urge You To Keep Fighting

by Kelly Tunney
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images News/Getty Images

This weekend in Charlottesville, VA., white supremacists and counter-protesters clashed over plans to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. As the violence escalated, a man drove his car into a group of counter protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. While recovering from their loss, Heyer's parents have spoken of her compassion and conviction toward standing up for the most vulnerable.

Both Heyer's mother and father have talked about their daughter's willingness to stand up for injustice. Her mother, Susan Bro, told HuffPost:

She always had a very strong sense of right and wrong. She always, even as a child, was very caught up in what she believed to be fair. Somehow I almost feel that this is what she was born to be, is a focal point for change. I’m proud that what she was doing was peaceful. She wasn’t there fighting with people.

Heyer had worked as a paralegal in Charlottesville at the Miller Law Group to assist people in filing for bankruptcy. Her friends reportedly recalled Heyer as a "strong woman" who had a good heart — a sentiment her mother echoed.

"Heather was not about hate, Heather was about stopping hatred. Heather was about bringing an end to injustice," Bro told HuffPost. "I don’t want her death to be a focus for more hatred. I want her death to be a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion."

Bro also talked to CNN's Anderson Cooper about her daughter on Monday, describing her as "passionate" and "fair-minded." Bro added: "She was driven to make people clarify their situation, to make people accountable for their behavior, to make people look at themselves and stop what she believed to be unfair."

Heather's father, Mark Heyer expressed similar pride in his daughter and her activism for justice. He said Heyer was a "strong woman who had passionate opinions about the equality of everyone, and she tried to stand up for that. With her, it wasn't lip service. It was real, you know. It was something she wanted to share with everyone."

Both Heyer's parents declared that they forgave her killer, James Fields Jr. Fields has been arrested and charged with one count of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and another count in relation to leaving the scene of the wreck, the Associated Press reported.

While Bro expressed her sadness for her daughter's death, she pointed out to CNN that Heather's death now gives them a public platform to call for justice, just like her daughter did during her life.